'Broadcasters need to show more women's events on TV'

He said TV bosses and sporting authorities including the Football Association had to start taking women's sports more seriously to encourage girls and young women to take part.

"The media just don't cover women's sports outside the Olympics period in any way as much as they should," he said.

"We also have to challenge the governing bodies - and I include football in this - to get much more serious about developing the girls' and women's games."

Government experts identify young women as one of several hard-toreach groups of people who tend to drop out of sport and are difficult to persuade to take it up again.

Mr Burnham said poor television coverage of potential sporting heroines was a major factor in the drop-out rate.

"What was so striking about the Olympics was the number of impressive women sporting role models featured on TV," he said. "The effect that had is huge."

The Culture Secretary said girls f locked to running tracks and velodromes after seeing Olympic coverage of athletes including gold medal-winning cyclist Victoria Pendleton and 400-metre champion Christine Ohuruogu.

"What the Olympics showed is that the public are interested in a great breadth of sport, both men's and women's.

"Some of the assumptions on which the televising of sport operates are wrong. The public are ahead of the broadcasters at times."